Saturn V was the largest, most powerful rocket ever produced. Developed in the 1960s, in response to President Kennedy's call for a moon landing by the end of the decade, it rose from the drawing board to flight vehicle in record time. The rocket was masterminded by Wernher Von Braun and did not fail in any of its flights.

The story of the moon missions is well known with many books and films on the subject. Little has been written on the Saturn V rocket and next to nothing on the development, manufacturing and testing of the rocket stages.

In this book, for the first time ever, the detailed story of the history of each Saturn V stage is presented. This includes the 45 flight stages built and all of the various test stages. Most of the stages ended up being launched. Some are in museums, some were destroyed on the ground and some are so obscure they are detailed for the first time in this book. The book traces each stage from the start of manufacturing, through assembly, testing, static firing and transport to the Kennedy Space Center. Facilities across the US were used to manufacture and test the hardware at a pace demanded by the Kennedy pronouncement. Engines were built by Rocketdyne and the rocket stages by Boeing, North American Aviation and the Douglas Company. Testing took place in Santa Susana, Sacramento, Mississippi and other facilities around the country. There were many problems along the way and all are covered in a detail never published before. Stages blew up, materials disintegrated, engines exploded.

The development of the F1 and J2 rocket engines is covered as well as details of all the major manufacturing and testing facilities. Throughout, unprecedented details of dates, times, events and parameters are presented.

Other unique aspects of the book include: - details of the history of each and every engine on each stage including a log of engine allocation - details of the transportation of each stage and engine by various means such as truck, barge, boat, super Guppy aircraft including a unique log of these trips - details of every firing including timelines, test stands, problems, performance details plus logs of each firing on each stage.

To supplement the book many photographs that have never been published before have been obtained and appear for the first time. The location of the remaining hardware is identified with photographs of the museum pieces. Research for the book has taken over two years and included unique access to all the major facilities and NASA history offices and libraries. Information has been obtained from Saturn veterans and also through the Freedom of Information Act. In summary this book has the first ever comprehensive presentation of the complete Saturn stage and engines activities from the early 1960s to the conclusion of the program in the mid 1970s.

Bonus DVD-V includes rare film footage.

"I'm extremely pleased with your latest publication that I recently purchased: 'SATURN V'. An excellent book with a ton of detail and the DVD is awesome!"Ted Marsowicz Buffalo NY

"Saturn." There are lots of books on the moon landings, but few really good ones on the monster rocket that made the missions possible. Alan Lawrie, a space propulsion engineer, has penned a detailed account of how the rocket came to be, how it worked and what we can learn from it. The book comes with a special add-on DVD that features some rare Saturn 5 footage.

“Saturn” by Alan Lawrie wins the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Written Presentation.

Each year, there are various awards for the best in film, TV, the theatre and music, but there is also an award designed to recognise and reward the best in UK space research and exploration. The Sir Arthur Clarke awards are the space equivalent of the Oscars, and cover a number of categories, such as Best Team Achievement, Best Space Reporting, and Achievement in Education, Outreach and Inspiration. The 2006 award for Best Written Presentation was won by Alan Lawrie, for his book“Saturn”, which comprehensively documents the development of the Saturn V rocket, which carried the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. No-one who has seen a Saturn V launched will ever forget the experience, and the remaining Saturns on display at the Huntsville, Kennedy and Johnson space centres bear witness to the incredible achievement of the Apollo programme. Alan Lawrie took considerable pains to track down not only the history of the Saturn V, but also the rocket stages and the engines, and has put together a remarkable document about this unique rocket. Mr Lawrie gave a talk about the Saturn V at a meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society, at which his award was presented to him by Jerry Stone, Director of the Sir Arthur Clarke Awards. For more information, visit www.clarkeawards.org